Basic Astronomy - Section B
Lifelong Learning | Registration opens 1/8/2025 9:00 AM EST
For those completely new to astronomy, the first step is to become familiar with the night sky, how it changes through the night and season by season, and how it varies according to the observer's latitude. Students in this class will be actively involved in making and using models to enhance learning about their place in the universe. We will learn about our observable sky "neighborhood" at a very basic level.
Participants must be comfortable being in a slightly confined and dark space for approximately 30 minutes. There is a new dome, so participants do not need to bend over. The area will be lit when entering. This class is a repeat of the other Basic Astronomy courses offered. Registration is open to those who have not used a registered spot for the class before. After January 27, if spots remain, former students can register.
Susan Button
Susan Button was an outreach portable planetarium educator for 16 years and before that a classroom teacher for 11 years. She served on the Executive Council of the International Planetarium Society (IPS) as President Elect, President (2005-2008) and then as Past President (2009-2010). She has served as chair for the IPS Portable Planetarium Committee from 1988 to the present.
As a consultant, through her business, “Quarks to Clusters,” she has provided teacher training and assistance to educators involved in lesson and curriculum development in 14 countries around the world since 1990. As associate editor for the “Planetarian”, the IPS quarterly journal, she has written a column for mobile and small planetarium directors since 1990. She also wrote and published, with help from colleagues in the field, two handbooks for the IPS: they were titled "IPS Portable Planetarium Handbook” in the English language and "Tips for Portable and Small Planetarium Users” in Spanish.